Top Newfoundland Travel Questions ANSWERED | What We Wish We Knew Before Our Trip - BONUS EPISODE!

So when we finished our RVing to Newfoundland and Labrador series, we thought we were done with it, but we've gotten so many questions from you and from people interested in making a similar journey, we thought we would do a one last episode to try and answer some of those questions. We are Terry and Cindy O'Keefe. We've been camping together for more than 40 years, and we invite you to join us on a 14-episode adventure as we explore Newfoundland and Labrador. Okay, so let's start with the most common question that we got, which is, did you reserve your campgrounds in advance? And if so, how far in advance? And you'll have to excuse us if we're referring to some notes here because we're trying not to forget anything. The answer is yes and no. It depended on where we were. For example, Gros Morne, we really wanted to try to get a site with an ocean view, so yes, we made reservations there the first day that the National Park Reservation System opened. Other places we made reservations in St. John's at Pippi Park, simply because we were going to be there in July and it can be very, very busy. We also made reservations in Gander because we had tickets for Come From Away and we knew we had to have a spot for that night. And the other place that we made reservations was Fogo Island, only because Brimstone Head Campground there, they've only got a limited number of sites. It's the only campground on the island and boondocking there is pretty limited. I would say we probably should have made reservations at Viking RV Park up near Lhasa Meadows, only because we thought we're going to be there first week in June, it won't be busy. It was, because that's where the icebergs were, so it was very busy. So we probably should have made reservations there. Everywhere else, just a day or two ahead, we would call and we didn't have any problems finding other spots. Welcome to the big land. If you had stayed longer in Labrador, would you have spent a down day, lazy day, or would you have traveled farther? What would you have done different? Oh wow, well I wouldn't have done anything different. Red Bay was fascinating, Point Amour Lighthouse was great. There is one other historical site in Labrador, a little further past Red Bay, and I want to make sure that I get this right, Battle Harbor National Historic Site. From what we've seen and read about it, it looks fascinating. So if we'd had another day, we probably would have checked that out. But we absolutely loved Labrador. Yeah, and we did have a few fellow travelers who were headed out to Battle Harbor and they said it was wonderful. And Ranger loved the beach there in the Pinwear River. So this is the second most common question that we did get. We will also be traveling with our dogs too and wondered how you managed during the excursions. For example, Western Brook boat tour and the Iceberg boat tour, which were both a few hours long. It did appear you were able to bring your dog along for most of the trail walks. Okay, Newfoundland generally very dog friendly. We almost didn't see any signs that said no dogs. But for leaving Ranger in the trailer for those excursions, first he's a very good traveler. You know, he made the trip to Alaska and back. He's quite used to it. When he's alone in the trailer, he doesn't bark, he doesn't chew, he doesn't destroy anything. That we know of. That we've found. But if we knew we were going to be leaving him, we would make sure that we had a site with electricity so that if it got warm, the air conditioning could come on. That didn't happen very often in Newfoundland that it got warm and the air conditioning never came on. And one other thing that we did is we installed a combination lock on the trailer door. We took out the door, sorry, the lock that came with it and put in a combination lock. And that way, if something had happened while we were away and Ranger was there in the trailer, we could contact someone at the park and hopefully they'd be able to assist. We could give them the combination and they'd be able to get to, you know, get Ranger out if they were able to help us out. So that's the one thing that we did change in the trailer. We do have a camera that we can monitor the trailer with, but it needs Wi-Fi and there was not Wi-Fi at the parks we were staying at in Newfoundland. All right, next question. Was there a reason you took the short distance ferry both ways and not the long overnight ferry one way and short distance the other? That's an excellent question and we did consider that plan exactly. So there's a few reasons why we didn't do it and it has mostly to do with when we were going and what we wanted to see. The long distance ferry was not running in late May when we went. You could only take the short ferry at that point in time. And we knew when we got there, the first thing we were going to want to do is go looking for icebergs. So we were basically going to bypass Portabasque, Rose Blanche, all that area and we weren't going to have time to see it. We also knew that we had tickets that come from away in Gander towards the middle of July. And so if we'd gone all the way over to St. John's and we're going to take the ferry down, it was going to mean backtracking to Gander anyways. So those were the reasons and of course it's a lot cheaper. The long route ferry that goes to Argentia and lands near St. John's is basically double the cost. So sure we had the additional cost of fuel to get back to Portabasque, but it let us see things that we had missed on our way there. In your video you said that we must turn off our propane tanks on the Marine Atlantic Ferry, which is okay, but it means that fridge and freezer are not running for seven to eight hours or so. If yes, do you have any advice or should we just deal with it? Okay, it really depends on your RV. We're fortunate we've got 400 watts of solar power on the roof and a 230 amp hour lithium battery, which will run our 12 volt fridge for a couple of days. But if you don't have that luxury, if you're running your fridge on propane, yes, you've got to turn it off. And so I would suggest maybe freezing some bottles of water ahead of time and putting them in the fridge, basically turning your fridge into a giant cooler and let those ice bottles try and keep your food cool. Did you consider driving across Quebec and Labrador to get there as opposed to the Nova Scotia Ferry? We are driving from Ontario and Yes, we absolutely considered it and decided against it. Our research showed that fuel stops could be up to 400 kilometers apart and when we are towing, we don't have that kind of range, not even close. So that was one of the reasons for it and of course that road is kind of notorious for having some very rough sections. We thought we had abused our little trailer enough taking it to the Yukon and Alaska and so we were just trying to avoid that. But I completely understand the allure of wanting to go up through Quebec to drive the entire Trans-Labrador Highway. That would be very cool. And the next question, can you share how much you spent on gas? Cha-ching! $4,187.98. And remember that was in 2024 and at that time in Newfoundland, the average price of gas was $1.82 to $1.87 a litre. You know, right now as we're filming this in early 2025, gas is considerably cheaper. Just a couple of things though, since we're talking about gas. One thing we found in Newfoundland that was very different from here, regular gas here, 87 octane or 89 octane, 87, is you know, let's call it $1.20. But if you want to get the high test, the 91 octane, you're going to pay $0.25 or $0.27 a litre more. In Newfoundland, yes the gas was expensive, but the higher octane gas was only $0.07 a litre more, not $0.27. So if you're running some higher octane fuel, it's actually not too bad. Also since we're talking about fuel, there is a couple of things that you should know. On sections of the Trans-Canada Highway and some of the other longer provincial roads, you could go quite a distance without seeing a fuel station. And you may have to get off the highway to go and find it. So try not to let your tank run down too low. And the other thing is we found, especially in the more remote areas, gas stations might not be open on Sunday, or at least Sunday morning. We were trying to make it to the Labrador Ferry and we stopped at four gas stations before we finally found one that was open on Sunday morning. So next question. My wife and I are planning a trip there in August and September this year. We're in New Hampshire and are wondering how long your trip was. It's a two-day drive for us to Sydney, so it's going to add time to our trip. So we crossed on the ferry May 31st and returned July 17th. So seven weeks in Newfoundland and an additional two and a half weeks of travel to and from North Sydney, the ferry terminal, taking in some sights along the way. So a total of about nine and a half weeks. And the next question, yeah we're laughing, we still don't know how to pronounce, is it kitty viddy or quitty viddy? Kitty viddy, and it took me a while to get it. Hey, since we're talking about pronunciations, is it newfoundland? As one person we saw, Newfoundland, or how do you pronounce Newfoundland? Newfoundland. I'll put up something here to try and help with that pronunciation. Next question, what time of the year were you there to see icebergs? We were there in early June, and May-June is the usual season for iceberg viewing. If you've gone ahead and looked at any iceberg news this year, it seemed to be kind of a banner year. They're like everywhere where when we went, it was mostly in the northern area. Now we've got another question about a dog, but this one's specifically about dogs on the Can we return to the RV to check on him once we're on the ferry? So once the ship has sailed, no you cannot because the doors are locked and you can't get to your vehicle. Booking a pet-friendly cabin early might be your best bet. Yeah, and if you want some tips on the ferry and pets on the has 13 good pieces of information for you for the Marine Atlantic Ferries. And this is the third most common question that we did receive, and it is, how did you find the roads? Quite a mixed bag. The Trans-Canada Highway, the main road that runs from Port of Basque to St. John's, it's two-lane, it's on a raised bed, but don't let the two-lane aspect scare you off at all. Newfoundland has done an amazing job when they built that road of putting in passing lanes. You will never get stuck in a traffic jam behind anybody for very long. There's passing lanes everywhere. Having said that, because it is built on a raised bed, the shoulders tend to be narrow. So if there's a breakdown or there's a car that's broken down, just you got to be really careful that that vehicle could be parked out onto the paved area a little bit. And that also means that the ditches are quite deep. Some of the secondary roads, yeah, you got to drive slowly and with some caution on some of them. I will say that if you see a sign that says rough road ahead or bumps ahead, they mean it. Yeah, they're serious. But generally speaking, yes, there's areas you're going to have to watch for construction, you're going to watch for potholes or broken pavement on some of those secondary roads. But it's not too bad. And maybe we can say that easily because we've driven the Alaska Highway, so we know what bad roads can be like. But it really wasn't bad. We didn't have any issues at all. But I will add, just like we talked about with gas, there is not a lot of pull-offs. There's not a lot of rest stations. Yes, yeah. And, you know, we were lucky. We had to make a stop once and we were lucky to find one. But they are not common. It is not at all like many of the interstates or even some of the major highways on the mainland of Canada. So we have the same RAM pickup as you and are thinking of getting the same MiniLite as you. Could you please let us know what kind of fuel mileage you got? So when we're towing, gosh, on that trip, we were probably averaging 27 to 28 litres per 100 kilometres. Yeah, when you're towing, it's hard on the fuel mileage. I will say, and you'll be seeing that in some upcoming videos, we actually just changed our vehicle and we're now using a RAM 2500. And while it doesn't get near as good as gas mileage just driving around town, when we're towing with it, it actually gets about 20% better gas mileage than our 1500 did. I think it just doesn't work near as hard. So I have to ask, do you wash the RAM and MiniLite before we see them in the video? They always look so clean and polished. I actually laughed just like this when I read that question. No, we don't. We do try to keep them clean, obviously. But I will say on this particular trip, I was starting to go a little stir crazy a couple of times because car washes were really, really hard to find. And so trying to get the truck cleaned when we'd driven on some gravel roads and it had gotten kind of muddy, it was eating at me. But the other thing, just because we're on this topic, that we found was somewhat lacking in Newfoundland were also laundries. Some of the campgrounds had them, but they were always busy. And I'm like a laundry fanatic, so I found that a little frustrating. But hey, around town, we found them in a gas station, like unlikely places, but great little gas station in St. Andrews, met six fellow travelers, had a great time, killing time doing laundry altogether. And that gas station also had a car wash. Wondering what you found as regards to boil water advisories in Newfoundland. From what we can gather, they're pretty frequent and widespread. We want to have a good water filtration system in place so we can avoid boiling water all the time and not be forever feeling like we need to sanitize our fresh water tank. That's a great question, because yes, there were three that I can think of. Gros Morne National Park had one, Elliston Municipal Campground had one, and I've written them down a list. Oh, and Lockston Path Provincial Park also had one, and I think we may have had a couple more. So our drinking water was predominantly coming from bottles. By the time we got to St. John's, so this was about a month into our trip, maybe five or six weeks into the trip actually, we opened the taps there and we had this brown sediment. So we flushed the tanks at the campground. Fortunately, we had a full service site and that was really easy to do there. But yes, be prepared for boil water advisories. They are, I don't want to say common, but they're not uncommon. Wondering if poor cell service was an issue. Well, it wasn't really an issue, but does it happen a lot? Yes. Especially the remote parts of the province, the western half and the northern part, absolutely cell service was spotty. So if you've got an important call, if you're trying to make a reservation and you've got cell service, use that opportunity to do it. We also found, much like when we traveled to the Yukon and Alaska, serious satellite stopped working or started cutting in and out quite a bit as well. How did you find out about all the municipal campgrounds in Newfoundland? There's a number of apps that we use. Our go-to is probably RV Parky. It's about a $20 a year subscription fee for it, but we also use Campendium and iOverlander. iOverlander is great for finding boondocking spots, but it also has information on campgrounds. And there's one other great resource, which is the Traveler's Guide and it's put out by Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism. It is absolutely excellent. It's got anything you want to know about Newfoundland in here. You can order it ahead of time. They'll ship it to you for free. Or when you're at the ferry terminal in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, waiting for your ship, you can pick up a copy at the visitor center there. Is boondocking widely acceptable? Newfoundland was very friendly towards it, unlike most of Canada, with the Yukon and northern BC being the other exceptions that we have found. Yeah, we saw lots of Newfoundlanders boondocking. We absolutely loved the spot near Twillingate and Crow Head. It was incredible. And Point Amour in Labrador. I mean, some of the nicest boondocking that we've ever seen. There were some other places near Trinity and Bonavista that are kind of famous for some boondocking spots, but when we were there, the weather really wasn't conducive to staying in because it was kind of exposed with incredible views. Rainy and windy. Yeah. But I will say, camping, so affordable in Newfoundland. Alliston Municipal Park was $20 a night. I would say it probably averaged about $35 a night. And the most expensive campground that we had in Newfoundland was Pippi Park in St. John's, and it was $55 a night. And for our American viewers, that's $55 Canadian. That's going to be less than less than $40. All right. Did you have any concerns about wildlife? Great question. So Newfoundland has no snakes, raccoons, skunks, porcupine or deer, despite this huge forest as well. Very few bears. Yeah. And that's why you will see so many campgrounds that actually have garbage cans right on the site because there's no critters that are going to get into them. But I will say Newfoundland has caribou and a lot of moose. And so you have to be very careful driving, especially at night and in bad weather. And we actually had one experience on the Trans-Canada Highway. We were heading towards Gander in a rainstorm and a moose started charging out onto the road. We could see her coming. There was a car coming the other way. There was nowhere to swerve to. We were towing the trailer. And just thank goodness at the last minute, she just spun around 180 and went back the other direction because I hate to think what might have happened. So yeah, that's probably the biggest concern you should have as far as wildlife in Newfoundland. But I also will say if you're there really early, like April, early May, when the ice flows have come in, it's actually possible to get polar bears. They come in on the ice flows with the icebergs mixed in with it. And it's not uncommon for Newfoundland to have one or two polar bears each year. In the matter of interest for everything. Another very popular question was the weather. What kind of gear to wear? The weather changes very quickly and frequently. But one thing we could always count on was the wind. We had more fog than expected to. So we arrived in late May and found that time was quite cool, requiring a fleece, outer jacket and a toque. In Labrador, it even had a little bit of snow flurries lying around. By mid-July, it was hot, shorts and tank top weather. Any good rain gear is a must as well. Yeah, you don't like the weather. You just wait half an hour. It'll change. But as Cindy said, fog and wind were probably the two that we knew it was going to happen, but we didn't anticipate it having as much fog and as much wind as we encountered. And so the next question, was there many bugs? And I don't think they mean me, but maybe. Well, there were some. There are these nasty little black flies. You think nothing of them, but they really pack a nasty bite. So they weren't as bad as we expected. We did take a dining tent in case, but we never put it up. Yeah, never needed it. Nope. You arrived fairly early, beginning of June. Did you find most things were open then? Great question. It is a great question because it depended. Many of the larger historical sites, the national historic sites, the provincial ones, opened on June 1st. And so our timing that way was perfect. But in some of the small communities, there were still some restaurants or tourist type of stores that hadn't opened yet. But generally speaking, yeah, come June 1st, most things were open. But just kind of going back to what we talked about with the gas stations, we also found in the small towns, especially Sundays, lots of businesses weren't open. And then some of those businesses also would take the Monday as a day off too. So you couldn't count on every restaurant and every store being open on Sunday or Monday. What were some of the best resources for Newfoundland? So in addition to the traveler's guide that Cindy talked about earlier, we found Facebook groups to be invaluable. There are Facebook groups for finding icebergs, for finding whales, for general information about restaurants and camping. There's Facebook groups for ferry users, whether it's for Fogo Island Ferry or the Belle Island Ferry. They've got individual Facebook groups for them. They were fantastic. And the Newfoundland government has an app, Newfoundland 511. It was very good as well for road information and for ferry information. Are people as friendly as you hear in Newfoundland? Oh, absolutely. Though they may be a little more difficult to understand than you expected. There are hundreds of dialects, and some very unique colloquialisms. Isn't that right? Yes, by. And we found this to be particularly true in some of the smaller communities. And one of the other things, terms of endearment, very, very common. I have waitresses, and it's quite unusual for a waitress who's 40 years younger, calling you dear, love, babe, my dar, darling. They're charming and wonderful, wonderful, warm people. So the next question, is it easy to find food and supplies? Yep. Most small towns have great general stores, and very often they're half hardware store and half grocery store, but very well stocked. So the next question, do you have any regrets? I mean, I wish we had seen the capelin rolling on the beach, but that's out of our control. That's mother nature. No, not really. What about you? I wish we had been able to listen to more live music, kitchen parties, shed parties, but it's just with the timing, it didn't work out. But I do wish we had done that more. Yeah, that's a pretty small list of regrets. It kind of shows how amazing that our trip was. What surprised you the most? Oh gosh. I mean, Newfoundland's called The Rock, so I expected it to be, you know, but it was so much more rugged and mountainous than I anticipated. And most of the island is just surrounded by these, you know, jagged cliffs, and it's quite spectacular. One of the other things I was surprised about was how affordable it was. Meals in restaurants, you know, were like at home, or maybe a little less expensive than some of the smaller communities. And even some of the excursions, you know, I guess we kind of went expecting Alaska prices, and it wasn't. I don't know the exact price of our going out in the zodiac to see the icebergs, but it was about a hundred dollars each. Yeah. If, you know, if we had done something similar to that in Alaska, it would have been three times that. Did you have any mechanical issues or breakdowns? We were so lucky. Yeah, I mean, on that trip we drove 11,098 kilometers. The only mechanical issue that we faced was actually the very first morning after we left home, when the tire pressure monitoring system for the trailer went a little berserk. But all we needed to do was pull over, reset it, and it was fine after that. And no, we didn't have any. Did you ever need a generator? Oh, good question. We carried a generator. We only broke it out one time, and that was at Pinware River Provincial Park in Labrador. It was dry camping, and Cindy desperately needed to use the air fryer. So that was it. I love this question. Are you too tired to be able to travel for nine weeks at a time? Oh yeah, and loving it. So we would absolutely love to go back this summer. Tiny possibility, but there are other areas that are calling us. We would like to do PEI Nova Scotia this summer. Love to go back to Alberta, BC, the United States. Lots of possibilities. Yeah, some of those western parks are parks in the western US. So yes, we want to go back. God willing, we will. I'm just not sure when. What other challenges did you face? I think we've talked about most of them. The weather, the fog, the wind, spotty cell phone service. I think probably the biggest challenge, and we've lived through it before, was just spending so much time. Boy, I made that sound bad, didn't I? But just spending so much time, you know, together in a little 21-foot box. Sit down on your bum. Yes, you can do it. Sit down. That's it. Oh, so graceful. That's it. That's how I did it. I think I was more graceful than you getting down there. This isn't gonna go on video. Oh, I think it might. No, it won't. Oh yeah. Oh, she's armed. But here we are today, together still. But all kidding aside, you know, these kinds of RV adventures are great for our relationship. They build trust and respect and only strengthen our commitment. You just asked if you look like a movie star to me. Of course you do. So that's it. We hope we have answered some of the questions that you might have. If you're considering this trip and alleviated some concerns, because we cannot recommend an RV adventure to Newfoundland and Labrador enough. It was absolutely amazing. And if you are going, we wish you an incredible journey and safe travels.